Anyone here work in ITSM or Help Desk software?
 

I may have oversold myself at a recent trade show, where the booth next to ours was a German company that deals with ITSM. As booth neighbors, we became best friends over three days and chatted for hours in German. I recently emailed my new friend there, who's a big boss, about a job I saw on their website that looks like a fit. He immediately wrote back that that job was based in Germany, but that they'd consider making it US-based for me or even creating something for me. Now I have a Skype interview with him and the HR boss (in German) next week and am scrambling to educate myself. Mrs. Lee is a BSA, so she's been helpful in explaining some of the jargon and processes to me. Anyone here know more about this industry? PMs are welcome.

By help desk software do you mean ticketing systems, call logging, remote control/viewing, or ?

Yes, all of the above.

While I do a lot of help desk type work (answering calls, etc) we don't log 'em or do any ticketing. I've written some cheesy quick and dirty call loggers and ticket systems though....

I'll talk to one of the guys that rides the ITS Hell Desk tomorrow and see what I can get for you...

Work in IT.
We use a help ticket system just to keep track of requests as many take time to resolve, like ordering keyboards, or project to add or remove items from reports. For remote computer access and software installation we use KACE. As far as Skype we use Office365 so it is all linked to the employee address book, but really don't use it much. Well also have a help desk phone, but users don't call it much. Mostly email and KACE.

i work from home, so remote support is easily doable. Though I mostly manage email and file server access or just send instructions to do whatever they are asking about. Hardware stuff is done by other staff on-site.

Maybe I need to be more specific. This company uses open source software, but customizes, and even encrypts, it for their customers. The trade show I was just as with them was chock full of such ITSM providers, like over 50 of them. I'm really curious what makes one better than another. Since I was there to sell integration and outsourced DevOps services to all of them, I couldn't have cared less (at that time) about what distinguished one from the other. Now I kind of need to know about that stuff.

Rick,

The only recommendations I can make are to:

Familiarize yourself with the ITIL framework for ITSM (I think they cal it SO now). Almost every commercial or open source package is written with that as the foundation. However, be aware that you are not going to learn enough to "knock it out of the park" during your interview. ITSM is a bear to learn and process. But, at least try to get to get some knowledge of the service lifecycle. The pdf in the link below should help with the lifecycle and all of it components. Whatever you do, if you don't know the answer to a question, don't make one up. In my experience, Germans are sticklers for the details especially ITSM.

http://itsm.zone/samples/PPO.pdf

Second, familiarize yourself with CMDBs and their jargon. A good CMDB, and a good CMDB update/maintenance policy are key for making ITSM work

What do you want to know Rick, we do Managed Services and I can talk at length about it. Most companies it comes down to price, for us I prefer to focus on more personalized service. It's about services, integrity and understanding what the client acutally needs versus wants and all trying to fit into a budget.

The big sellers from the client perspective is a fixed, known monthly cost versus ad-hoc breakfix unpredictable cost. As well, knowing you have access to specialized skills you couldn't afford to hire.

The big one for us now is managed networking; clients have desktop or server guys, but can't afford to bring in skilled network staff, so we managed their network infrastructure for them.

Let me know what else you need.

Woah, struggeling with the BMC Software servicedesk here. We use it for incident management connecting the company over several continents.
What a PITA.

Did the Prince2 some year ago, now going for ITIL. But that wont help I am afraid.

I talked to those guys at a recent trade show too. Actually, I talked with all the exhibitors, as it's my (current) job to get them to use us for DevOps work (mostly integration) they don't want to do on their own.

I'm kind of curious what some of these guys offer over others. What makes one better than another? What are the value propositions - we speak good English on the phone, we do it all onshore, we're cheapest, our guys have the most experience? Some of these companies look like they have under 100 employees, but claim 100k customers. HTF does that work? Software licensing?

Look at Zendesk.com for helpdesk software

What makes them better or worse, other than the usual speed/reliability, is generally their customizability (real word?), and their ability to import/export data. For instance we use Service now and had to find way to import a lot of data from our software deployment / monitoring into it... We create custom properties at image time or later pushed with deployment tools, and those get imported into SN records, which makes auditors climax in their shorts (encryption status, virus protection status, etc, all as of yesterday). In our case we use Bigfix (same as SCCM or KACE, but better), I think we wanted to use REST APIs but ended up with simple excel exports that get sucked into Service now daily...

I work for a big organization in engineering, and we have an entire TEAM of 12 dedicated to running and modifying this tool, its forms, its features.. All those folks are the most incredibly anal people you'll ever meet, they eat live and breath ITIL... (look it up). They think ITIL is cool... That's a big flag for me, I'd rather get hit in the balls than attend another ITIL class ;-) I asked for some rewording of change request template and had to spend an hour discussing placement of commas, spaces, and exact days of the week I was gonna do what (whenever I can was not acceptable), it was lovely...

Personally I *hate* all that stuff.... I cannot conceive of wanting to work in that field even with a gun to my head. I understand the need for this software for ticketing, change requests, approvals etc, but the idea of enjoying an ITIL v3.0 class or spending my days inside service now is completely at odds with a long life... You may find your niche, but I suspect not... depends what your job will be I guess... selling it? administering it ? coding within it ?

^woah, exactly!

I hate ServiceNow.

They throw great parties!

Sorry I meant the UI. :)

Thanks guys. Been reading up on ITIL. I think that's probably beyond the scope of this sales job, but it will be necessary to be familiar with it. In my current job, we're only supposed to get the conversation started and then hand things off to a more technical person for the real nitty gritty. Still kind of wonder what this company's edge over competitors is, if other than pricing. But I'll keep reading up on them.

If you're selling, one differentiator is modularity. Not every customer has the same needs; what are the core features and what can functions can be added (up-charge or simply enabled). Transition from legacy application to the new one - how easy would it be? Can data be imported natively or do you have to go basic and export to .csv and import/reformat? Or something else? How are they built? On premise solution or virtualized? How are they managed - do they need a team like Deshcodt has? What kind of consulting/advising can they/do they do with clients?

Does it integrate with existing contact center systems (systems an agent uses to make or take phone calls) or is it standalone?

Biggest thing, as was alluded to earlier - reporting. How easy is it to get the data back out once it's in, and are reports customizable. Second biggest thing - how easy is it for an agent or help desk engineer to use, is it intuitive with drop downs or do they need to keep a manual on their desk?

PM me if you want and we can talk, I didn't work directly with ticketing systems however those folks reported up to me on a transition or upgrade. I ran the programs that installed the core IPT systems and worked with the clients on design & requirements.

One final point on ITIL, understand that it's a framework for how they do what they do, so it IS still good to know, but you'll have to understand why their product does it so much better, easier, more efficiently, whatever than the competition. So knowing ITIL is good, but dont go crazy over it. Understanding business processes is a far more important skill to have IMHO.